


Damaged Minds Think Alike

by SilverFliesInBlueSugar



Category: Naruto
Genre: BAMF Hatake Kakashi, BAMF Uzumaki Naruto, Blood and Injury, Domestic Fluff, Families of Choice, Just with a better upbringing, Kid Uzumaki Naruto, Naruto is Just Naruto, Parent Hatake Kakashi, Protective Hatake Kakashi, Published 1/12/18, Recovery, Self-Esteem Issues, Self-Harm, Smart Uzumaki Naruto, Suicidal Thoughts, Suicide Attempt, Whump
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-12-24
Updated: 2018-12-31
Packaged: 2019-09-26 15:34:04
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 5
Words: 5,601
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17144405
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SilverFliesInBlueSugar/pseuds/SilverFliesInBlueSugar
Summary: Just then, a familiar silver-haired Jounin peeked his head in the window."Maa, maa... Why did you have to call me back early? My mission was going so well.."Kakashi.Perfect.





	1. Chapter 1

Naruto stared down at the kunai in his hand.

It wasn't even really his kunai. He had stolen it, saw a rich man strutting down the streets, a pouch about his waist, clearly bulked with money, and beside that pouch was a beautiful kunai, three pronged with incredible details engraved in the handle and blade.

The man had been boasting to his friends about how it had belonged to the Fourth, how he had paid millions in yen to get his greasy mitts on it.

Naruto was able to steal it in a matter of seconds.

Of course, he was pursued halfways across the damned village, but decided it was worth it. Despite the fact that the bag of money might have been the more sensible choice to most to grab, something about the knife had drawn him in.

He gazed down apon it.

He'd had it for a few days, now. The theft had been monday, and the sun rose that morn for a quiet wednesday. He hadn't left his appartment - now that he had hold of something so valuable he knew the moment he was seen publicly the mass would kill him.

Well. He supposed he was about to do their job for them.

He pressed the blade to his wrist, wincing at the sting. He wasn't quite certain how to do this - had only heard of it and was desperately trying to imitate, even without a visual reference. You couldn't exactly expect all too much more from a 7 year old.

He pressed harder, and grumbled in irritation as yet again nothing happened, aside from the increasing pain from the pressure. He contemplated, then tried to slash.

The blade glanced off of his arm.

He gaped.

Had... Had he MISSED? At stabbing HIMSELF?

He groaned.

He didn't know why this was so difficult - he had the drive, right? He really didn't like his life, he was always bruised from attacks from vindictive villagers, always on the brink of starvation, always victim to whispers and hateful glares..

He had figured... Harakiri, or as it was more commonly reffered, Seppuku, was known to bring honour to disgraced ninja. Of course it mostly entailed driving a blade through one's own abdomen, but the child cringed at the thought.

Frustrated at himself, he drove the blade into the side of his wrist and dragged.

...That worked better than he expected.

He panicked at the quickly rising beads of blood, dark and immediately streaking down his arm. Oh god, that was deep. He yelped and ran to his tiny kitchenette, turning on the faucet and putting his arm under the freezing cold spray until the bleeding lessened. He hastily tore a peice of his shirt off and made a makeshift bandage.

He frowned at the fabric and then at the kunai before hurling the weapon, frustrated, anger rising at the clang it made as it hit the wall.

He slumped and suddenly decided he didn't want to deal with today. So he went back to bed, ignoring the rhythmic throbbing in his wrist.

×××

That afternoon, he was awoken to a knocking apon his door. Grumbling and ignoring the scrap of shirt still around his arm that reeked of congealed blood, he flung open the door and scowled petulantly at the anbu before him. "Whaddya want?"

The man seemed to balk at the smell of gore but collected himself. "The hokage wishes to see you tommorow morning, to give you your rent and to check up on you"

Naruto's scowl deepened. "That it?"

The man nodded before abruptly leaving, and the small blonde kicked the door before walking to his window and peering down.

Would a jump from this height kill him?

Probably. He was very short.

But honestly? He wasn't in the mood. That morning had already substantially freaked him out.

And so he went back to the sink, cleaning his wrist carefully, pouting at how disgusting the wound was. The skin was split clearly, and while the blood had risen to obscure the layers of skin he had opened, he could still see the ridges where his skin had parted, and just how far down they went.

It was pretty fucking disgusting, especially to a little kid.

Gagging, he uncapped a small bottle of disinfectant, dabbing some on his wrist before thoroughly washing the scrap of fabric and wrapping it more securely back on his arm. He searched the pile of clothes at the foot of his bed and managed to find a comfy, long sleeved shirt. One that could hopefully avoid Lord Third's notice.

×××

It didn't.

Hiruzen stared in abject horror at his charge, at the stench of blood in the room that Naruto didn't really know how to get rid of other than opening the small window he had. Naruto nervously clutched at the cut on his wrist. The Third seemed almost ready to burst into tears, and it would have been almost comical had Naruto not felt so shit.

"Naruto... Did you try to... Hurt yourself?"

It was a stupid question.

Naruto bowed his head. "I... I figured, since killing yourself can bring back honour to disgraced shinobi, i just thought..." he cut himself off to glance at Hiruzen, and balked at the look of horror on the old man's face. "Naruto, you do not need to replenish your honour, not by any measure and certainly not by this means. You do not truly want to die, do you?"

Naruto considered. He.. The idea of death didn't scare him as much as he knew it should. Honestly, the idea of an escape from his shitty life seemed amazing.

Hiruzen took the silence as the admission it was, and Naruto was removed from his home later that day to have a medical ninja check up on his wound and to be assigned a shrink. The Third had slight trouble thinking where to re-locate him. Preferably somewhere away from vitriol, and certainly under any kind of guardian figure. Living alone was no longer a reasonable option unless he wanted Naruto to be tempted to attempt again.

Just then, a familiar silver-haired Jounin peeked his head in the window.

"Maa, maa... Why did you have to call me back early? My mission was going so well.."

Kakashi.

Perfect.


	2. Chapter 2

"Kakashi" he waved his hand. "Come in"

Kakashi nodded before body flickering in with a burst of leaves, lowering his hands from where they formed the needed hand symbol and pinned the Kage with a quizzical frown. "What is it, Hokage-Sama? You never recall me unless it's a matter of urgency"

The Saindaime sighed, a sadness crossing his face. "You are well aware of Minato-San's child Naruto, yes?"

It was a slightly rhetorical question, but Kakashi nodded anyway. "...I am"

The Third took a puff of his pipe before removing it from his mouth and placing it on his desk. "The poor child i fear is suicidal. When i went to check up on him just this morning his apartment smelt horribly of blood, and he had fabric wrapped around a deep incision in his arm" he looked up at Kakashi, who had a dawning look of horror. He nodded sadly. "Yes, Naruto wanted to attempt suicide"

Kakashi seemed to be struggling to keep his face neutral, but anyone looking could tell his chakra had flared at the emotions spinning through him, teeth gritted and struggling to breathe through a mix of anger and shock. Anger that the village had driven a child to this point, shock that Naruto could even think to try such a thing. 

He looked at the floor. "I assume he was removed from his apartment?"

Hiruzen nodded. "And this removal is related to why i called you back. You were mostly called back as a guard for him, but seeing you has kick-started my old brain again" he smiled, though it was clearly forced. "Kakashi-kun, i know that you are yet still young yourself, but could you consider perhaps taking on guardianship for young Naruto, at least until he is old enough to graduate the academy? He will be going in under a year, and i wish for him to be stable before then, and stable throughout.."

Kakashi had frozen, before he spoke, the words stilted and shocked. "...This is a lot to take in" he finally stuttered. Hiruzen smiled with slightly less grief. "You have until the end of the day to give an answer, but do not worry if you don't know or do not want to. I have many other trusted shinobi, you are simply the easiest to come to mind."

Kakashi hesitated before sighing. "I'd like to see him first.. If i may"

"Oh course" the Hokage nodded, before turning to the shadows. "Could you please escort Kakashi-San to Naruto, in the mental health sector of the nearest hospital?" he called. An anbu member stepped out and nodded to Kakashi, before whisking them both away in a wind of leaves.

They arrived in reception and the anbu relayed the information to the lobbyist, who seemed slightly annoyed at the fact that Naruto was there (had the sandiame got someone to sneak him in? Kakashi wondered with surprise) and when he was told the room his guide vanished. He wandered off and found Naruto sat on the edge of a hospital bed with jammed shut windows and padded floors. They squished uncomfortably beneath his feet as he walked in. Naruto looked up before his eyes widened in surprise. "Oh, you! I've seen you! But you were wearing your funny mask!" he shouted.

Kakashi paused, shocked. Naruto knew him as hound? Sure, he had watched over Naruto repeatedly (Naruto had spotted him sometimes and waved. It was very cute), and he had only been insistently forced by the Hokage to extradite himself from the Anbu Black-Ops a year ago (the trauma still lingered, and even as he tried to act more carefree darkness still laid in his heart) but Naruto shouldn't have been able to recognise him. He kept his voice steady. "...Yes. How do you recognise me without my mask?"

Naruto smiled. "Cuz of your energy! It feels all safe and not like you're gonna hurt me! That's what the anbu guy with the dog mask had!" he beamed before it dropped. "Most of the masked people staring at me felt angry or like they didn't care... It's weird"

Kakashi sighed, feeling bad. "Well. You might be seeing more of me, considering Sandaime is strongarming me into adopting you" he normally wouldn't have worded himself so disrespectfully, but figured acting a little immature would warm Naruto up to him faster. Naruto however didn't focus on the wording, shocked purely by the information. "Gramps is tryna make you adopt me? You're gonna be, like... My dad?!"

Kakashi flinched involuntarily, trying not to frown. "I... Wouldn't word it like that. But yes, i would adopt you. First, however, i think we would need to know a little more about each other, hai?"

Naruto started in surprise. "A-ano, ano sa... Hai!" he smiled. "What d'you wanna know, dattebayo?"

"Things like... Your favourite colour, your aspirations, your interests, that sort of thing?"

Naruto beamed. "My favourite colour has to be... Blue! Or red??? Orange is good too!" he grinned foxily. "When I'm older I'm gonna be Hokage, dattebayo!" he pumped his fist in the air before wincing and pulling it down, and Kakashi winced at the sight of sutures holding the scarred skin together. It was THAT bad? Dear god..

Naruto sheepishly lowered his hand, tucking his arm behind his back before continuing with considerably less vigor than before. "I like, um, ramen and fighting! And the ramen shop guy! And you!" Kakashi's one visible eye widened before he closed it and gave the child a smile. How could anyone hate a kid so bright? He despised the villagers sometimes.

"U-um, i don't like vegetables, or the clothes shop guy, or ero-oyaji!" he stuck his tongue out in distaste. Kakashi gave a brief chuckle, hoping there wasn't more to the last one. He was sure Naruto was just being dramatic, but it didn't hurt to be careful"

"Maa, you said that you could sense my mood toward you" Kakashi eventually prodded. "How do you feel it? Are you sensing my chakra signature?"

Naruto blinked before tilting his head. "Chakra signature? Īe... I just feel it sometimes, yanno? Like a prescence, or a fog or summin..."

He spoke childishly, but Kakashi easily understood. So it seemed Naruto was a natural borne sensor, just like his father. He smiled. "Well Naruto, i need your opinion on this too" he tried not to chuckle as the boy immediately gave him his full, undivided attention. "Would YOU want to be adopted by someone like me?" 

Naruto bit his lip. "Shirimasen.. You seem nice and everything. Nicer than most people... " he sent him a shy smile. "I... I'd like it lots. If you wanna, anyway"

Well. He supposed that was it decided, then.


	3. Chapter 3

"My apartment. In all of it's.... Glory" Kakashi said sheepishly, gesturing to his tiny apartment with a hand movement of sarcastic grandeur. However, he realized a beat too late that Naruto probably DID find this impressive. He sighed as this suspicion was confirmed by Naruto's wide eyes and big smile. "Woah, your apartment is really big, mister!"

"Just call me Kakashi" he shrugged, shaking his head. "Anyway, come in, I'll show you what room you're going to sleep in and house rules. Though let me establish one right now - no training indoors. I quite enjoy not being evicted"

Naruto snickered and Kakashi sighed in exasperation. "Two. No harming yourself. This applies to anywhere. No purposeful self harm and no attempts on your life, understood?"

The child tensed at this decree, seeming to want to protest, but eventually frowned submissively at the floor. "....Kay"

Kakashi was too distracted unlocking the door to notice he had crossed his fingers behind his back.

He gestured for the 7 year old to come in, which he did, and Naruto beamed at the small hallway, a thick carpet layering the floor. To the left was Kakashi's own room, to the right was a storage closet that could easily be renovated to serve as Naruto's room, and ahead were the kitchen and bathroom. All in all very simple and small, but bigger than Naruto's and relatively nice.

Naruto kicked off his sandles before dashing into Kakashi's room. Kakashi sighed and followed to see the child bouncing up and down on his bed. He told him to get down but the child just stuck his tongue out and bounced faster.

Moments like this really enunciated that Naruto, despite going through traumatic experiences one would expect from a seasoned shinobi, he was still, for all intent and purpose, a child. He had been nearly kidnapped, stabbed, kicked, punched, pushed down, robbed, screamed at, and so much terrible things. And yet he still had enough of his mind left to have these moments where he could truly be a kid.

So Kakashi let him bounce, going into the kitchen to make something. He wasn't a very impressive cook, but he was sure he could whip up something competent enough to satiate Naruto's assumedly low standards.

He had hidden most of the kitchen knives and stray weaponry, but what he didn't know was that the hospital staff had forgotten to take away the special kunai.

And as Naruto ceased his bounces, he pulled out a three-pronged blade from where it had been pressed up against his stomach in his waistband.

×+×+×+×

The next few days passed quickly and without incident.

For the most part, Naruto recovered, though the nature to his unsual healing evaded him. Whenever he would trip or catch his hand on a sharp edge the wound would heal almost instantaneously, and if not, within less than a minute. With the self inflicted one from his attempt on his life, it had stayed and recovered at a normal weight.

When he had asked his new mentor, Kakashi suggested that perhaps the body didn't realize it should heal self-inflicted wounds because the brain didn't think to heal something it had caused.

It was the best he could think of without explaining the kyuubi, which was out of the question. In context of Kyuubi, he figured the chakra of the 9 tails simply had rules and Naruto had avoided a few. He had little way of knowing.

Then one day while he was out on a short mission, Naruto had snuck from the apartment to train at a normally quiet training ground. As he settled into a stance something firm collided with his back and he was sent sprawling into the dirt. He winced as he realized someone had kicked him down. He struggled and tried to get up, but was kept down by someone placing their foot on his head.

Spitting out dirt he glared defiantly at them. It was an older teen, donning a hitae-ate. A ninja. He paled.

"What's wrong, monster filth? Can't defend yourself?" the man growled, and Naruto froze at the pure hatred in his eye. "Good. That means i can put you in your place"

The rest was a blur of fire and blades and a torturous genjutsu that had lasted several minutes. He desperately ran and ran and ran, and collapsed in Kakashi's home, sobbing.

And he pulled the blade from his shorts to hold it over his wrist...

And paused.

Kakashi would be REALLY upset if he killed himself. The man did kind of seem to care about him... Besides, last time's attempt didn't exactly work...

...Maybe he could just lightly hurt himself? Would he still die? 

He dragged the razor-sharp edge across his arm below his still healing scar, and paused. The wound was similar to it, but less severe. The skin no longer parted as much, a small slit rather than an opening, and the amount of blood was less. With less density of the blood it also appeared as a more normal red than a condensed black.

He cut again and again, and found with surprise that it somewhat drained the tension from his bones.

He stared at his arm in wonder. What the heck was this? Why did it... Make him feel less upset?

He washed his arm under the tap and pulled his sleeves down, and when Kakashi came back he found it hard to speak to him with the guilt.

Eventually he just locked himself in his room, and when Kakashi attempted to coax him out he screamed expletives at him, tears rolling down his cheeks, chest heaving.

There was silence before Kakashi pulled out his key and unlocked the door, entering. Naruto was curled up beneath his blanket, clearly trying to hide. Kakashi raised a brow, even while concern brewed in him, and his alarm heightened at the prescence of a reddish smudge on the child's pillow.

"...Naruto?" he said quietly, and was unsurprised to receive no response. "Naruto, I need you to talk to me and tell me what has happened. You aren't normally this difficult"

"Monster filth is always crappy to deal with" he heard faintly mumbled, and froze. What? "Naruto, who--?"

"Doesn't matter. Shut up. Go away" Naruto emerged, face red and covered in tears and drool. "Leave me ALONE!"

"Calm down" Kakashi raised his hands defensively, eyebrows knitting together in confused concern. "I just want to talk. I won't hurt you - i promise"

Naruto sniffled. "...Promise?"

He nodded.

Naruto slowly relaxed, before bursting into a fresh round of tears. Kakashi tensed in alarm before gently rubbing his back, and forced down his reflex to jerk away when Naruto threw himself into his arms to sob into his flak jacket. He tentatively wrapped his arms around him, not used to giving affection of any kind.

When the child eventually simmered down he slowly drew back and touched his arm. Naruto froze and let him pull his sleeve down to reveal 4 fresh and scabbing pink scars.

Naruto eyes began to well up again. "I-i'm sorry-"

"It's... Ok" Kakashi sighed, downcast. He had really hoped the self destruction was a one off thing, though he should have been smart enough to know that wouldn't be the case. Especially with his own experience...

Shaking off the memories and the fading scars on his arm that seemed to respond to them, he gently placed his hand over Naruto's arm and allowed it to glow green.

In the grand scheme of things he was utterly incompetent at medical ninjutsu, but hoped that his minimal skill could suffice. Thankfully it did, and Naruto's wounds completely healed up, leaving behind only faint scars.

"...Do you want to tell me why this happened?"

Naruto sobbed and nodded, and it all came spilling out.

And as Kakashi sat with the child crying in his arms, wrapped arms around him, hating the people who had hurt him, he realized with a start he had began to feel as if Naruto was truly his child.


	4. Chapter 4

'Ano, ano sa, I'll be starting the academy soon, yeah?" Naruto asked nervously. Kakashi paused before nodding. "Yes - Is there something wrong?"

"It's just... I suck at ninja stuff..." Naruto mumbled. "The only thing I'm even okay at is punching... I can't do magic or tricks"

"Ninjutsu and Genjutsu, not magic and tricks" Kakashi sighed. "I assume you're bringing this up because you want me to teach you?" 

"If... If you have the time" Naruto murmered, scuffing his heel against the floor. Kakashi's eye softened. Man, this kid really knew how to make him feel bad. "I don't have a mission for at least a week, so i can try. I'm not very gentle though" he warned. He often found it hard to hold back in things like spars, which he would likely need to do on some level to train Naruto properly. You need to have experience in actual combat to learn truly, after all.

And so a half hour later he found himself handing a child several kunai that had attempted suicide only a week earlier. God, what was he doing?

Naruto bit his lip and frowned at the target stationed 20 feet away before throwing it with all of his might. To Kakashi's interest, while Naruto missed by a wide berth, it almost seemed like the wind aided in pushing the blade closer.

To test this theory he instructed Naruto to throw again. An identical conclusion.

He pulled out a sheet of chakra paper and handed it to Naruto to press his chakra into. Naruto was, of course, extremely bad at this, but eventually managed to push in enough chakra that the paper split neatly down the middle.

A wind affinity. That... Wasn't particularly surprising. Both Kushina and Minato were primarily wind release.

Would be a pain to teach him though, considering Kakashi himself was proficient in Doton and Raiton, both of which opposed Fuuton.

Oh well, he did know a few wind jutsu, he was sure he could at least slightly expand Naruto's probably non-existent arsenal.

But right now he should focus on his accuracy with weapons.

And so for several weeks they did on and off training, trying to get Naruto to any level of skill. He was stubborn and determined but also lacked self esteem and any training before this point. So he struggled a fair bit, the entire experience a rather uphill battle.

But eventually he sort of managed to hold up. Of course, only in the context of a seven year old. For a boy his age he was pretty alright, if a bit clumsy. In comparison to Kakashi... Yeah no.

Kakashi himself had to make sure not to hurt the child. Not because he wanted to hurt Naruto, but simply because remaining anbu bloodlust was hard to shake off.

He had tried to teach Naruto a wind release jutsu, but the child's chakra pathways were so overloaded due to the Kyuubi that it was near impossible. He could summon forth rather powerful bursts, sometimes tinged with crimson, but could never focus enough to create a comprehensive jutsu.

...Oh well, he was sure he would pick up on it eventually.

Naruto started at the academy, shy. He liked to hide his misery behind big smiles, but Kakashi saw right through them so Naruto learnt to just let his guard down around him. Now he regretted getting used to doing this, as his despondent expression drew concerned glances from a few classmates and disdain from others.

A man named Iruka was his sensei, and Naruto quickly grew impatient in his lessons. Iruka seemed quite nice (When he wasn't having an angry nervous breakdown) but he wasn't too good at holding the attention of bored 7-8 year olds.

Leaving class, Naruto blinked at Kakashi waiting by the swing for him. Like... A dad.

Heart swelling in his chest, he ran to the man and jumped up onto him in an overexcitable hug. Kakashi flinched ever so slightly but awkwardly returned the embrace.

Then Naruto tensed, and before Kakashi could ask what was wrong he heard them.

Whispers.

"That monster was adopted? What the hell..."

"I honestly thought he was going for the throat of that man"

"Isn't that copy ninja Kakashi? He would be the only one with enough patience to stand that little-"

"If you do not hold your tongues, i would be glad to remove them from your mouths" Kakashi snapped, something dark gleaming in his eye. The response was flinches and scared back-and-forth glances before the villagers fled.

Sighing he looked back at his charge, who still looked suitably anguished. He pulled him up, carrying him home, plonking him on the sofa and heating up some ramen.

The poor kid deserved something nice today.


	5. Chapter 5

"This technique I'm going to try to teach you is Fūton: Kazekiri no Jutsu. I somehow doubt you'll pick it up even within the year, but it's honestly the only wind technique i know with any good skill. To explain it simply, it's weaponizing the air. Sharpening it, i suppose, then slashing it. You could use this as a general attack, but it's very effective in conjunction with other things like other jutsu or weaponry"

The eight year old stared at him uncomprehendingly and Kakashi ran a hand down his face.

"Look, never mind the explanation then, I'll run you over the handseals. They go: Tiger → Rabbit → Dog → Ram → Dragon. Do you remember how to do those?" Kakashi asked tiredly. This time Naruto smiled and nodded. "Yuh uh, I'm really slow, but i know all the handseal positions!"

"Then demonstrate, please"

Naruto carefully put his hands in the correct seals, and he was, true to his word, very slow, it taking him several seconds to do and go between each seal. Kakashi forgot just how inexperienced ordinary children were - as a prodigy by Naruto's age he himself could form a set of handseals in less than a second, so he could admit not being certain how to actually predict how normal kids actually work.

However, he could easily predict that the jutsu would fail to happen.

Naruto looked discouraged, and tried again and again, and Kakashi suddenly realized that he was an idiot and needed to start smaller.

"Maa, maa, Naruto-Baka, look" he drawled, slowly walking up a tree. Naruto stared at him as if he were some sort of mythic entity before he became starry eyes. "Wow!!! How do you DO that???? Teach me, teach me!!!!"

Kakashi chuckled and hopped back down. "You know about chakra and how it flows through the body, right"

"Err... I think so, sensei taught us last lesson or sumthink..." Naruto shrugged. Kakashi smiled slightly "Alright, good. Do you know how to control or bring your chakra forward?"

Naruto shook his head.

"Well, that's what this training excersize is gonna be all about. To walk up this tree, i needed to concentrate a layer of chakra on the sole of my feet to keep me connected. Too little flow and i would have fell. Too much and i would have been repelled violently. One second - give it a try"

Naruto paused but nodded, looking uncertain but curious, and ran at the tree.

As per expected he made it about two steps up and was immediately repelled.

Kakashi chuckled lightly and patted him on the head. "C'mon, no need to look so dispassionate. This excersize normally takes a week to master, i won't expect it done in a day"

And so a week passed.

And another.

Then a month.

Naruto was beginning to grow pissed at himself. Kakashi suggested slicing a notch in the tree to mark his growth, but his latest one was only 3 or so meters up, not even close to the top.

He began to sneak out at night to practice. He resultantly turned up to class tired and with muscles acheing terribly, but he decided it was worth it.

Sasuke Uchiha kept glaring at him, but he was too tired to bother to return him, which ended up just puzzling the Uchiha boy. His classmates were becoming slightly concerned about how zoned out he always became, Iruka Sensei especially.

And eventually. He struck the top of the tree.

He beamed down at his surrogate father and was overjoyed to see a mirroring smile on his mentor's face. He hopped down, stumbling slightly as he hit the ground, then grinned. "Sooo, wind cutter jutsu?"

Kakashi chuckled and nodded.

×+×+×+×

The jutsu was unbelievably hard.

Sure it took a lot of chakra, his specialty, but it also required control, which he only had a tenuous grasp of due to the tree walk technique.

Kakashi had mentioned something about walking on water to further refine himself, but Naruto grumpily ignored him. He wanted to learn real stuff, not just boring excersizes!

After a week or so he could sort of emulate it, able to focus in small slashes of air, but they were usually weak and had very little range. Continous negative results were very discouraging.

Kakashi continued to reassure him it was normal, but it just added to the long list of things that gnawed at his self esteem.

He stayed up late night reading through scrolls to memorise techniques, trying desperately to be better. Sasuke-Fucking-Uchiha could do perfect jutsu (albeit very smallscale) so why couldn't he?

Sasuke always beat him in class spars. He was too weak. Too innacurate.

He wasn't good enough.

So Naruto threw himself into training as hard as his tiny body would allow him, doing pushups before bedtime and after waking up, throwing kunai at targets almost all night, practicing his punches and limited taijutsu pool against Kakashi...

And yet Sasuke still beat him. Always. Everyone looked at that bastard, everyone loved Sasuke...

And he was mocked.

Why did he always have to be the pariah?!

One day, he passed out from exhaustion in class. It was kunai throwing practice, and after a miss, when he tried to run to collect the blade his vision doubled, legs shaking, before giving out beneath him.

Kakashi had reprimanded him harshly, and forced him to sleep more and let up just a little on his ridiculous and straining practice.

Naruto eventually could sort of kind of do the wind cutter technique. The results were pitiful, most of the cuts not even as bad as those he had given himself before, but still - his ability to perform it spoke to improvement in his skills.

He also needed to work on his clone and transformation jutsus, which he found abysmall. He always failed no matter what. Kakashi had told him it was because his chakra deposists were disturbingly huge and thus low-expense jutsu were difficult to cast as you couldn't just pump chakra into it until it worked like you normally could with other justu.

He promised Naruto that when he graduated the academy he would teach him how to make water clones.

Naruto meanwhile tried to experiment with water jutsu even while learning the basic clone and transformation. Water, he found, was easy enough to learn. Not quite as much as wind, and it was still quite difficult, but he remembered his pitiful attempts to learn a fire jutsu and knew the difference was magnitudinous.

Kakashi had explained to the upset child that it's extremely hard to master all nature types and that he shouldn't get so upset about his difficulties - even Kakashi had only technically mastered lightning and was simply proficient in the other types, albeit especially so with earth.

Naruto managed to get the hang of two water jutsu - water bullets and water dragon. His dragon wasn't much bigger than him, but screw it, it was still a working jutsu!

The rest of his class also seemed to see his improvements - Sasuke glared at him more due to him being competition, some girls seemed mildly interested, in that childish sort of way, and Iruka seemed slightly proud sometimes.

Two years passed mostly without hitch, and he was ten, as well as still overwhelmingly unpopular. But the hatred was... Muted. As if they felt an obligation to annoy him more than an actual want.

Then it all went downhill.

A hyuuga boy had attacked him. He had defended himself, and was immediately faced with a looming clan who wanted his head for hurting one of their own.

Kakashi had spat something hatefully about "damned set-ups..." while Naruto just clung to him, terrified.

And for a moment, in his overwhelming fear and anger and hurt, his eyes flashed crimson.


End file.
